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<!--
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* packages.html
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*
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* Authors: Chad Berkley
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* Copyright: 2000 Regents of the University of California and the
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* National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
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* For Details: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/
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* Created: 2001 January 23
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* Version:
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* File Info: '$ '
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*
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*
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-->
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>Metacat</TITLE>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="@docrooturl@default.css">
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<table width="100%">
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<tr>
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<td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Packages and Relationships</p></td>
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<td class="tablehead" colspan="2" align="right">
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<a href="./metacatapi.html">Back</a> | <a href="./metacattour.html">Home</a> |
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<a href="./replication.html">Next</a>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>Metacat allows a user to create a virtual link between XML documents within
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the system. These links are called <i>Relationships</i> and are defined by triples
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in <i>eml-dataset</i>, <i>eml-literature</i> or <i>eml-software</i> files. A relationship can be defined between two
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XML or <a href="./datafiles.html">non-XML</a> files.
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The following is an example of an eml-dataset-2.0 file holding triples at the end:</p>
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<pre>
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<?xml version="1.0"?>
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<!DOCTYPE dataset PUBLIC "-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN" "eml-dataset-2.0.dtd">
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<dataset>
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<identifier system="null">berkley.5.3</identifier>
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<shortName>allsp</shortName>
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<title>MARINE sampling data collected between spring 1992 and fall 1996</title>
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<originator>
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<individualName>
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<salutation>Dr.</salutation>
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<givenName>Peter</givenName>
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<surName>Raimondi</surName>
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</individualName>
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<organizationName>UCSC</organizationName>
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<positionName> </positionName>
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<address>
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<deliveryPoint>Biology Dept.</deliveryPoint>
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<deliveryPoint>A309 Earth and Marine Science Building</deliveryPoint>
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<city>Santa Cruz</city>
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<administrativeArea>CA</administrativeArea>
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<postalCode>95060</postalCode>
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<country>USA</country>
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</address>
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<phone phonetype="voice">831-459-1234 x5674</phone>
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<electronicMailAddress>raimondi@biology.ucsc.edu</electronicMailAddress>
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<onlineLink> </onlineLink>
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<role>Originator</role>
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</originator>
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<pubdate> </pubdate>
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<pubplace> </pubplace>
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<series> </series>
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<abstract>
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<paragraph> </paragraph>
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</abstract>
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<keywordSet>
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<keyword keywordType="null">intertidal</keyword>
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<keyword keywordType="null">santa barbara</keyword>
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<keyword keywordType="null">photoplot</keyword>
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<keyword keywordType="null">quadrat</keyword>
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<keywordThesaurus> </keywordThesaurus>
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</keywordSet>
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<additionalInfo>
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<paragraph> </paragraph>
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</additionalInfo> <font color="red">
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<triple>
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<subject>berkley.6.1</subject>
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<relationship>isRelatedTo</relationship>
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<object>berkley.5.3</object>
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</triple>
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<triple>
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<subject>berkley.7.1</subject>
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<relationship>isRelatedTo</relationship>
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<object>berkley.6.1</object>
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</triple>
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<triple>
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<subject>berkley.8.1</subject>
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<relationship>isRelatedTo</relationship>
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<object>berkley.5.3</object>
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</triple>
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<triple>
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<subject>berkley.8.1</subject>
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<relationship>isRelatedTo</relationship>
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<object>berkley.6.1</object>
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</triple>
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<triple>
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<subject>berkley.8.1</subject>
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<relationship>isRelatedTo</relationship>
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<object>berkley.7.1</object>
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</triple>
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<triple>
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<subject>berkley.14.1</subject>
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<relationship>isRelatedTo</relationship>
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<object>berkley.6.1</object>
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</triple> </font>
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<temporalCoverage> 1992 to 1996</temporalCoverage>
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<geographicCoverage> </geographicCoverage>
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<taxonomicCoverage> </taxonomicCoverage>
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</dataset>
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</pre>
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<b>Description of the Package File</b>
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<p>Note that the doctype of this document is an unregistered NCEAS specific
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DTD (-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN). The package doctype is an application
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property of Metacat. Setting this property (and others) is described in
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<a href="./properties.html">Setting Metacat Properties</a>. The package file
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contains <i>n</i> triples. Each triple has a subject, relationship,
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and an object. This grouping can be read as follows: <subject> has
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<relationship> to <object>. Each triple is a logical link
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between the subject and object with the relationship being a description of that
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link.</p>
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<b>The Utility of Relations</b>
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<p>Relations become useful because many XML data schemas are broken up into
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multiple DTDs. Thus, there may be many different XML files that are all
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related to each other yet are stored seperately within the system. Also,
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since we, here at NCEAS, are developing Metacat for use as a metadata
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repository for ecological data, we need some way of linking our metadata
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to the datafiles that they describe. Packages are the way we do this.</p>
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<b>Post Processed Relations</b>
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<p>The package file is inserted into Metacat as any other file is. Its doctype
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is checked against the packagedoctype property in the <a href="properties.html">
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Metacat.properties file</a>. If it is of that type, the file is sent
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to a postprocessor to be analyzed and inserted into the xml_relation table.
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The table looks like the following:</p>
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<table border="1">
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<tr>
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<td>relationid</td><td>docid</td><td>packagetype</td>
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<td>subject</td><td>subjectdoctype</td>
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<td>relationship</td><td>object</td><td>objectdoctype</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>1</td>
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<td>berkley.5</td>
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<td>-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</td>
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<td>berkley.6.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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<td>isRelatedTo</td>
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<td>berkley.5.3</td>
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<td>null</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>2</td>
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<td>berkley.5</td>
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<td>-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</td>
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<td>berkley.7.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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<td>isRelatedTo</td>
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<td>berkley.6.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>3</td>
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<td>berkley.5</td>
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<td>-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</td>
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<td>berkley.8.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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<td>isRelatedTo</td>
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<td>berkley.5.3</td>
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<td>null</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>4</td>
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<td>berkley.5</td>
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<td>-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</td>
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<td>berkley.8.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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<td>isRelatedTo</td>
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<td>berkley.6.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>5</td>
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<td>berkley.5</td>
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<td>-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</td>
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<td>berkley.8.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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<td>isRelatedTo</td>
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<td>berkley.7.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>6</td>
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<td>berkley.5</td>
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<td>-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</td>
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<td>berkley.14.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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<td>isRelatedTo</td>
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<td>berkley.6.1</td>
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<td>null</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>Once, the system has processed the package file and inserted the relations
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into the xml_relation table, the files relations are always returned to with it
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in the <a href="./metacatquery.html">resultset</a> of a query.</p>
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<b>Package Views (formerly known as 'backtracking')</b>
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<p>Package View is a feature that was intentionally left out of the
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<a href="./Metacatquery.html">Queries and Results</a> section. Package views
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involves sending a doctype (called a returndoctype) along with a query request.
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When there is a hit from that query, the system will check the doctype of the
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hit document against the returndoctype. If the doctypes do not match,
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the system checks the xml_relation table to see if that document has been packed
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by document of that doctype. If such package document exists, it
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is returned instead of the one which was originally hit. If no such
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package document exists, then the document which was originally hit is returned.
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This allows a display system (such as a web browser) to try to display a
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certain type of document.</p>
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<p>For example: Take our package file from above. Say we do a query for
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"intertidal" which returns the document berkley.6 of type -//NCEAS//eml-entity-2.0//EN.
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However, we have set returndoctype equal to "-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN".
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When berkley.6 is hit, the system will check its package documents to see if
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it is of type -//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN. Since it is,
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(relationid 1, 2 and 4) document berkley.5 is returned instead of berkley.6.
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<p>From a client the returndoctype is a servlet parameter.
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A URL with a returndoctype would look something like: </p>
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<pre>http://server.domain.com/Metacat?action=query&anyfield=%&qformat=html&returndoctype=-//NCEAS//eml-dataset-2.0//EN</pre>
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<p>The system then inserts the returndoctype parameter value into a pathquery
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document as illustrated in <a href="./metacatquery.html">Queries and Results</a>.
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</p>
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<br>
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<a href="./metacatapi.html">Back</a> | <a href="./metacattour.html">Home</a> |
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<a href="./replication.html">Next</a>
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</HTML>
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